Dan
City · Dan → Tel Dan, Israel
The northern marker of the land, from Dan to Beersheba. Jeroboam set up a golden calf here.
People
- Abraham
- Jeroboam
- Ben-Hadad
- Tiglath-Pileser III
At a glance
- Realm
- Canaanite Laish, then Israel (tribe of Dan)
- Role
- Northern border city and rival shrine
- Peoples
- Sidonian Canaanites, then Danites
- First mention
- Genesis 14 (as Dan, used ahead of its time)
The story
At the far north of the land, among the springs that feed the Jordan, lay the Canaanite town of Laish, a quiet Sidonian settlement. The tribe of Dan, still looking for room to live, fell on Laish, burned it, rebuilt it, and named it Dan after their father, so that it became the northern marker of Israel.
Abram had once chased the eastern kings as far as Dan to rescue Lot. After the kingdom divided, Jeroboam set one of his golden calves here so the north need not go up to Jerusalem, and in its ruined gate archaeologists found the old stone that names the house of David.
Through the eras
- The Patriarchs · standing. Called Laish in those days, a quiet town in the far north.
- Conquest & Judges · standing. Still Canaanite Laish at this hour; the Danites came north in the days of the judges and gave it their father’s name.
- Divided Kingdoms · in ruins. Jeroboam’s golden calf stood here until Tiglath-Pileser destroyed the city in 732 BC.
- The Exile · absent from the map.
- The Return · absent from the map.